In this dark comedy the character Uncle Fudgey unwittingly goes on a mind-bending journey into his unconscious and undergoes a spiritual transformation, dropping out of his privileged and problematic life. This image captures the atmosphere of the show beautifully with echoes of Alice In Wonderland and Faust. We worked hard on creating both that energy of the drop but also the sense of the unknown with a cavernous feel to it with lots of dead black space around a central column.
Fudgey is wearing his archetypal dressing gown, scrum hat, and an oversized school uniform. Being an "exquisitely" boarding school reared man-child and revisiting an institutionalised childhood in the show, this is what his costume says. The dressing gown adding a louche quality to depict him being holed up in his house, indulging and floundering.
There is a creepy comic element to the show so the tall red letters against the black is a nod to this. The skull with sunglasses and tie around the head, apart from being a character/puppet in the show, is also a symbol of death. Which is also a hint to the death of Fudgey's ego.
Creating the falling we threw various objects from the show into the air, capturing them at the top before the fall. The shot of the briefcase open with papers coming out of it turned out particularly well. We were going to put more objects from the show in but wanted to keep it simple. The briefcase portrays the businessman that is Fudgey.
Finally, to say that we wanted a striking and simple image that would stand out against the other more complicated and colourful posters. Also, as the show is a thought provoking comedy with a serious issue at its heart the focus is on the character and the show as opposed to the performer. The success of the image is that it feels like an allegory.
- Designer
- Conor Jatter
- Photographer
- Rebecca Need-Menear
- Performer
- Tom Greaves
- Show
- Goodbye Uncle Fudgey